I Missed you Guys
by Steampunk Wilson
Summary: "Whoa." Donald remarked. "I haven't seen you cry in twenty years." - A little glimpse into the aftermath of the season 2 finale and everyone being reunited with Della, specifically the Duck cousin dynamic, they all know that they've been apart for way too long for it to go back to the way it was. / Mild alcohol reference warning.


**That season finale was so great, definitely warranting a oneshot or two! I like writing angst for characters who don't generally get a huge amount of emotional depth, and the Duck cousin dynamic is too precious not to be written about, so yeah, enjoy :)**

Once the excitement and celebrations were over and most of the damage from the moonlander's rocket ships had been mended that could be mended, Della managed to find one important task that still needed to be undertaken.

"What do you mean bedtime?!" Dewey demanded, arms folded. Huey and Louie expressed similar displays of frustration. "We just helped save the world from being pulled out of orbit! Don't we at least deserve to stay up 'till midnight?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Dewey's right." Huey said with a nod of agreement. "There's still so much to document and reflect on tonight!"

"And we just got Uncle Donald back!" Louie added, giving it his most pleading expression. "We wanna spend time with him!"

Della gave a small sigh. "Look guys, it's getting late, you know it is, and pretty soon, I think someone will turn this party up to a more, mature level." She said, attempted to be discreet, but took note of her kid's blank faces. "You know, break into Scrooge's elite collection of Scottish whiskey."

Huey made a face, Dewey still looked confused and Louie rubbed his hands together. "And you guys are eleven. And I really want to get up to some old fashioned mischief with my brother and my cousins. I repeat, go to bed." She pointed for emphasis.

The boys sighed, but mumbled goodnights to her and departed. Out of the corner of her eye, Della spotted them making their way over to Webby, probably to invite her on a late night adventure of some sort, but she decided not to intervene. After all, they did save the world too.

Della spotted Donald almost immediately, their mythical twin ESP hadn't died yet, she noted, not even ten years on the moon could keep them apart forever. He was standing with his back to the party, phone pressed to his ear, and he was talking into it. As Della drew closer, she could catch phrases such as: "Yes, we dealt with that easily," and "is she crazy, Scrooge will never pay for that!" and "see you as soon as I can". He caught sight of her and smiled. "I'll call you back tomorrow." He said into the phone and hung up, turning to face his sister with a smile on his face that Della had thought she would never see again.

"Who were you talking to?" She asked.

"Panchito." He told her. "His mother blames us for the damages that the rockets caused to their farm. I was just calling to make sure they were OK." Della chuckled.

"Sure, we can go fly out and visit that knucklehead who convinced you to drop one of my children." Della said with an edge of laughter in her voice. "I'd love to see him again!" She turned her expression to one of murderous rage. Donald gave a frightened quack. "Kidding!" Della burst out laughing, putting an arm around her brother's shoulders, which he brushed off with a huff, but accepted her hug. She wrapped her arms around him tight; she never wanted to let him go.

"Never leave again." He murmured in her ear. She nodded eagerly, holding onto him tightly. "I'm serious. You're sleeping in my houseboat."

Della laughed, fondly pushing him away. "You're not serious?"

"Of course I am." Donald laughed.

"No way. You can sleep in the mansion with me!" The pair laughed, and Della took hold of her brother's hand. "Where's Gladstone and Fethry? We haven't gotten a proper chance to say hello yet."

"Those idiots?" Donald gestured towards the colossal form of Mitzy, dominating the party. "I think they're over there."

The pair of ducks headed over, hand in hand, towards Mitzy's head, which seemed to tower over the mansion by itself, never mind the rest of her. Sure enough, they could pinpoint Fethry sitting on her forehead, head tipped back, observing the night's sky. Gladstone was also visible, pacing around in front of his cousin and his cousin's krill. He looked tense.

"Hey guys." Della announced their arrival, causing Gladstone to look up and Fethry to glance down. "Are we interrupting?"

"Of course not!" Fethry said brightly, sliding down to the ground and landing in a small cloud of dust on the gravel in front of them. "After you came back, I couldn't complain about you interrupting anything ever again!"

Gladstone gave a small nod of agreement and came over to them as well, looking unusually downcast ad fiddling with the hem of his jacket.

"So listen guys, I know we didn't really get a chance to talk about the me being gone for the last ten years, but I just wanna say, I missed you guys! Gladstone, Fethry, I don't know how I went ten years without seeing you boast about the latest lottery you won, or set Scrooge's kitchen on fire somehow using just four dfferent species of fish and a spork, or even some weird combination of the two, oh man that was an interesting afternoon, but what I wanted to say was I..." She sighed and looked her cousins in the eye. "I don't think I'll ever be able to face being away from my family again!"

Her cousins both looked touched. Fethry grinned a wide grin and approached Della.

"I missed you too!" He announced. "But I do have a couple of questions for you."

"Sure." Della said brightly, expecting the routine moon questions like that she had received from Huey. What she didn't expect was for Fethry to grab her by the front of her jacket and lean over her face. It was rather terrifying.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! WHY DID YOU GET ON THAT ROCKET?! WHY DIDN'T YOU CONTACT US THE MOMENT YOU GOT BACK?! DID YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT US WHEN YOU LEFT! WHY DID-" Fethry let out a breath and stepped back slightly, calming down instantly, and Della's heart ached once more for all the misery she'd caused. "I... I missed you too, Della. More than I could ever put into a stream of really loud questions and I-" He sighed slightly, clenching his fists. "You're not allowed to leave ever again, OK!" He wrapped her in a quick and fierce hug, crushing Della's ribs slightly, but that wasn't the reason she felt a tear roll down her cheek. She ruffled Fethry's hair affectionately as he drew back from the hug.

"I won't." She said in her most sincere voice. Donald came up beside her, putting a hand on his younger cousin's shoulder, leaning Fethry affectionately against his shoulder. Della turned to the fourth member of the dynamic team, expecting to see Gladstone watching with a bemused smirk on his face. What she saw instead made her eyes widen in shock.

"Whoa!" Donald remarked. "I haven't seen you cry in twenty years!"

Neither had Della. But in front of their shocked eyes, their cousin was quietly sobbing into his hand, eyes completely focused on Della. He made no attempt to conceal it as he saw his cousins watching him.

"I just..." He tried to stop, but couldn't help it as tears flowed down his cheeks. "I missed you so much. When I saw you on that island, I couldn't... it was like... I've never felt so happy in all my life and just..." Another sob cut through his words and he made an attempt to cover his face with his hands. "You don't know what it was like to be left behind, while Fethry had his fish things, Donald had the boys, you were gone... I couldn't... I couldn't even-" He fully covered his face with his hands, shoulders shaking with sobs.

Della took a step away from her brother and towards Gladstone, putting a hand over his hands. She slowly lowered them from his face and hugged him, letting him bury his face in her shoulder.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "But I want you guys to know that I am never going to the moon again. I missed my family way too much for that to happen again."

Gladstone paused slightly, sniffed, and wrapped his arms around Della, hugging her back. Donald came over to them and put a hand on his twin's shoulder, and Fethry somehow wrapped all three of them in a bear hug. Gladstone laughed a little, detangling himself from Della and rubbing Fethry's head while simultaneously pulling Donald's hat over his eyes. They had been separated for too long. But that was over now. They had Fethry's nerdiness to guide them, Gladstone's luck to pull them out of tough situations, Donald's fierce protective nature to look after them, and Della, the firey light of them all.

The duck cousins had been apart, but that time was over now. They were reunited and ready for whatever could be thrown at them.

"You guys wanna climb onto Scrooge's roof and see who can throw the tiles the furthest?" Della asked, and the boys nodded eagerly.

"Let's get climbing!" Donald announced, cracking his knuckles, thinking back to those happy summers the cousins had spent on the roof of their grandmother's farm, and the few times they had snuck up to Scrooge's roof. The long climb was certainly worth it.

"Oh, no need for that!" Fethry declared. "Mitzy! To the roof, please!"

The giant krill was only too happy to oblige and seconds later, the four of them were ontop of the mansion, watching the party play out below them. Della sat down, Donald on one side of her, holding her hand, and Gladstone on the other, scuffing the roof tiles with his feet. Already Fethry was selecting loose tiles for them to toss, preferably in the opposite direction to the celebrating party guests. It wasn't quite the scene of their childhood, but Della didn't really care.

To her, it felt perfect.

**If you enjoyed reading, let me know through favourites and reviews! I'm looking forward to when I have time to write for this fandom, and I like having feedback on whatever I write, and that being said, hope you enjoyed the story!**


End file.
